Walking into the State Capitol on Friday, CU is in the forefront of people’s minds as they are greeted with posters extolling the university’s virtues.
Friday was CU’s second “CU Advocacy Day at the State Capitol,” where 195 CU alumni, students, staff and parents, representing all four campuses, gathered to lobby on behalf of CU. Of those in attendance, 65 were there on behalf of the Boulder campus.
CU Advocacy Day is an event organized by the CU Office of Government Relations, was first stated in 2009 and is planned to be an event held every other year, said Connie Johnson, senior policy analyst and assistant director for the CU Office of Government Relations.
The focus of this year’s event was the budget, she said.
“This event is an important opportunity for CU alumni, students, leadership and friends to come to the capitol to meet and talk with state legislators about the importance of CU and higher education,” Johnson said. “This year, our presentations focused on a state budget outlook and CU’s budget.”
The event began early on Friday, where participants mingled from 7:30-8:30 in the morning.
Even a person unfamiliar with the Capitol building could easily find his or her way to the CU group; looking up from the first floor dozens of people were visible along the railings of the second floor, sporting business casual attire with a striking number of gold-colored ties, jackets, sweaters and scarves.
At 8:30 a.m., the crowd was shuffled into the old Supreme Court Room, which was split so people could sit according to the campus they were representing. Regents, past and present, and chancellors in attendance were recognized, as well as a plethora of state legislators who came to the morning festivities.
CU President Bruce Benson set the stage for the day, saying our state legislators work hard and would all give CU more money if they could.
“Our concern is that the budgets keep dripping and slipping downward,” Benson said. “We’re getting out of the recession slower than other states. We’re not trying to highjack other people’s money, it’s important that we’re here for all of higher education.”
After Benson’s speech, half of the group was to go view the House while the other group viewed the Senate, but it wasn’t long before both groups were shuffled back to the old Supreme Court Room, where Gov. John Hickenlooper had dropped in unexpectedly to give another speech.
“This is going to be a real difficult year for the budget,” Hickenlooper said. “There are no hidden pools of money, no excess reserves of cash anywhere … everyone is aware that our future economic vitality (and) how robust the economy is, is directly relational to our ability to invest in higher education.”
Advocacy Day ended on the basement floor of the Capitol, where two presentations were given on the Colorado State budget: the general fund where funding for higher education comes from and CU’s budget, and how the two work together. Both presentations also had a question-and-answer session.
Sean Tufts, a 28-year-old working on his master’s of business and one of five CU-Boulder students in attendance, said he came to support his home.
“CU’s been my home for a long time now,” Tufts said. “I did my undergrad at CU and I’m in grad school as well now, and I’ve been able to peek behind the curtain a little bit and see some of the struggles we face and know how big of a benefit it is to the Colorado population and I just want to support it as much as possible.”
Tufts said he found out about Advocacy Day from an e-mail flier and was glad that he came.
“It’s an amazing event,” Tufts said. “Watching how our state Senate works is cool, watching how our House of Representatives works is cool. It’s interesting to find out how the things that affect my daily life on campus are orchestrated from different seats and watching that process is amazing.”
Contact CU Independent News Budget Editor Ellie Bean at Beanee@colorado.edu.
